Winter
by Jacquera
Summary: Danug and Druwez are travelling home after they've visited the Zelendonii.  It's winter and there's a blizzard so they find a cave to shelter them.  But that is only part of the story, Danug soon meets a girl named Shana, in mysterious circumstances.
1. Chapter 1

Danug struggled through a white landscape, a constant stream of snow hitting his face and chilling his brain.

'We should have wintered with the S'armunai,' Druwez muttered next to him. 'But oh no, Danug wanted to get back, and what Danug wants, he gets. I remember…'

'Sshh,' Danug stopped walking and put a frozen finger to his lips. 'I think I hear something.'

Druwez shook his head. 'There's nothing,' he said after listening for a while. 'You are imagining it.' He started to walk again, his head bent down low into the hood of his cape, trying to avoid the worse of the snow.

'No, wait.'

Druwez sighed and trudged back to Danug. 'There is nothing around here but snow. Snow, snow and more snow. We've been outside so long in this stuff; your ears are probably hearing things. Now come on, we should walk a bit more before we set up camp for the night.' He walked away.

'But…' Danug hurried after his cousin but then heard the sound again. 'I really do hear something, it sounds…' He looked around. 'Singing. Look,' He pointed up to where a flickering light came from a dark shape high up on a cliff. 'Look. I think it's a cave.'

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My name is Shana and I'm fed up, I've got a headache, and the raucous singing of my people doesn't help it. Today is the middle of winter, and a horrible day it has been. I don't mind the cold, or the snow. It's the celebrations that annoy me. All day, everyone but me has been drinking the fermented drink. All day they've been rolling around on the cave floor, only just avoiding getting burnt by the fires. And only then because I pulled them away. I've rubbed shaking backs, while people are sick in the night baskets. Held back hair so it doesn't get covered in what should stay in stomachs. Cleaned faces, given them tea to drink. But they don't show any gratitude to me, they just throw the tea away and crawl back to the drink. Getting more and more inebriated. And now they are having a competition to see who can sing the loudest.

I sigh and stand up, walking to the cave's mouth to peer out at the pristine snow. A cool breeze and some smattering of snow hits my face but I don't feel the cold, it just helped clear my head. I breathe deeply and close the wood barrier shut so I'm outside the cave, with the fire that always burns there and the people are inside. The noise from the singing recedes and I sit down. Start to hum to myself as I watch the sun set.

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'We have to hurry,' Danug shouted above the roar of the snow. 'This is turning into a blizzard.'

The snow was faster, the wind whipping it around and forcing it under the hoods of the capes. Both of them pulled the drawstrings around their faces, so that only a little showed. They started to run, as well as they could through the deepening snow.

And all the time, Danug kept looking at the flickering light.

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It's glorious; the dark sky looks like it is on fire.

I lean back and put my arms behind my head and stared at it. Deep peace fills me as I think about what my mother always said about the sunset. That a goddess was burning away the old day, ready to bring new to the people's life.

'What will you bring to me?' I whisper. 'Will you bring something new to my life? Or will it remain like it is?' I sigh and think about my mother. The woman who raised me died long ago, I haven't seen her since but when I was smaller, she used to tell me about her own mother and how she'd gone on a journey long before. And never returned.

'I would like to live somewhere else,' I mumble to myself. 'But they will never let me leave.'

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They were nearly there, the flickering light was bigger now, and not as high up in the cliff as they thought it would be.

'Look,' Danug pointed to a small path that led up to the mouth of the cave. 'We can get up that way.'

They stared to climb, slipping on the icy slope but determined, they continue. At one point they almost crawled up but eventually reached the cave. The dark cave. There was no flame in it, no people. It was empty.

'But I saw a light,' Danug said, frowning as he stood in the mouth. 'I saw a light.'

'Well, I saw nothing,' Druwez snorted, holding his spear shooter in his hand as he edged into the cave. 'You probably just saw the reflexion of the moon. But at least you found somewhere for us to stay for a while. This cave looks like it hasn't been used by humans or animals for a long time but it will give us shelter until the worse of the blizzard goes.'

Danug nodded and pulled his back frame from his back and rooted through it for the kindling he carried and the fire stones. Bending down, he quickly made a fire. 'It must have been the moon,' he muttered to himself as he warmed his hands.

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For a moment, I think I hear someone coming up the path, but that's impossible because no one ever comes here. No comes and no one leaves, not for a long time. Sadly, I open the barrier and slip back into the cave and head for my sleeping place.

My people are quieter now, sleeping off the drink but I know that tomorrow, they will have headaches and I will have to help them again. Just like every other day for as long as I can remember.

0000000000000000

The cave was a large one. It stretched right back into the cliff, growing bigger the further back it got. The two men walked through it, a burning torch in each hand. Together they noted the dust that was layered on the rough floor. At intervals the rock floor was darker, as if a fire had once scorched it there, but there was no sign of hearth stones or tinder. There was no real signs of the habitation of humans really, though it felt like someone had lived there. Once. But when they reached the back of the cave, and saw a small tunnel leading off it, they followed it into a small cave where someone had painted on the walls. And amongst the handprints and paintings of auroch and horses were a collection of people standing in a cave. And right at the front was a girl who looked like she had blonde hair and grey blue eyes.

'Ayla,' Danug gasped. 'She looks just like Ayla.'

Druwez stepped toward the wall, and reached out a hand to the painting.

'Don't.'

Druwez turned and looked at Danug. He had a frown on his face. 'Why?'

'I don't know, but I just feel that you shouldn't touch it. Like it's sacred or special in some time.' He shivered. 'Come, let's get back to the fire and make some supper.'

'Okay,' Druwez shrugged. 'I guess I am hungry.'

They walked back to the front of the cave, and thrust their torches in between two rocks. Then taking some stones out of their bags, they put them into the fire. Danug untied a large wooden bowl that hung from his pack, and went to fill it with snow. By the time he came back, Druwez had taken out some dried meat and a couple of travelling cakes that the S'Armunai had made with dried berries, animal fat and grains. He crumbled some into another bowl and waited for the stones to heat.

Danug used a stick to push one of the stones out of the fire, and drop it into the snow filled bowl, where it hissed. He put some more stones in and waited while they melted the snow into water. Then he poured half of it into Druwez' bowl, and added some mint to the rest.

Danug stirred the meat and travelling cake filled bowl, adding another stone until the food, now a stew, started to bubble. He divided it between two eating bowls and passed one to Danug, who passed him a cup of mint tea.

They sat for a while, just eating, filling their stomachs but didn't feel like talking. Too tired, they washed the empty bowls and cups with snow and then climbed into the furs they'd laid on the ground and went to sleep.

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I wake to screaming. Pushing off my furs, I get up and hurry to my sister. All around her are white lights, and she, paled faced and terrified, is staring at them. And shaking. And crying. And screaming.

'Make them go away Shana,' she says when she sees me. 'They frighten me so.'

'They frighten us all Shala,' I say as I reach through the lights and pull her to me. 'But they have never hurt any of us.'

'I know Shana, but why do they come? And…' she screams again and points to the far side of the cave.

Something is walking up and down there. Something that looks like a white bear but has no fur. Its skin is shiny, and there is some sort of bubble on its head. As I look at it, it looks at me and through the bubble, I can see sad eyes. It mouths something to me.

'What is it?'

I shake my head. 'It's just one of them,' I say. It's just one of the strange ones.'

Nearby, there are other strange ones but they look at least human, to a degree anyway. A woman with no hair and white scars over her face and body. A girl with a withered arm. A boy with no legs who seems to float in the air. All of them pale like spirits, but we know they are not spirits, spirits can't be touched, or fought and the leaders used to try when they first came. Until they started disappearing. And then in a flash, came back again. But since that flash, no one has been able to leave the cave, and what has been consumed the day before, whether food or drink, appears again the next day. Which would be good, if it wasn't for the strange ones. No hunting or gathering to do, we could just have fun every day, but who can have fun with such strangeness around them?'

'They will be gone soon,' I tell her, though I'm telling all the other children too, many of them peeking out from under their furs. Many of the adults doing the same thing. 'They will be gone soon.'

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Danug woke to an explosion. During the night, the dust from the cave had worked itself into his nose and caused him to sneeze. Which woke him up.

He looked around, puzzled to see rough stone walls instead of the hide tent. But then remembered coming to the cave the night before.

He pushed his furs back, and stood up, hoping as he put his boots on. Then went outside to empty his bladder. It was early morning and the snow had stopped but was pretty high. He knew there would be no chance of them continuing their journey for some time, that they would have to stay in the cave and just hoped they would have enough food to last them.

He trudged back to the cave through the snow and noticed Druwez was still asleep. Drool coming from his mouth as he snored.

Danug picked up the bowl he'd filled with snow the day before and went outside to collect some more, making sure he stayed away from the area he'd emptied his bladder over. He put the bowl by the embers of the fire to melt and then relit the fire.

Then he started to look through his pack, pulling out the packages of food within.

'If we're careful,' he said to himself. 'We can make this last us a week. Hopefully we will be able to continue on our way back to the Mamutoi by then.'

He lifted some stones from the fire and put them into the bowl of melting snow, waiting until the water started to bubble. Then he put some more mint leaves in it and left them to seep.

'We should have some of the dried meat for breakfast.'

He packed everything away again and poured some of the mint tea into a cup and stood up. Walked to the back of the cave. To the small cave with the painting in it.

He sipped his tea as he looked at the painting that looked like Ayla. Putting the cup down, he stepped closer, lifting his hand without realising, he touched the wall.

There was a flash of light.

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'Where am I? What happened? What was that flash of light?' Danug looks around the small cave, and notices the paintings are missing. Even weirder, he can hear people talking. He peeks around a rough wall and sees an occupied cave and a young girl walking toward him. Or toward the small cave anyway.

She stops when she sees him and then turns and runs away.

'Shana,' she shouts. 'There's a new strange one.'

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As soon as I hear Shala shouting me, I run to her. I was standing in my favourite place, in the mouth of the cave next to the big fire, enjoying the sight of the snow covered valley and hating it all the same because I would never experience walking in it again. But self-pity takes a second place where my little sister is concerned. So I run.

'What's wrong Shala?' I ask as I wrap my arms around her.

She points to where a young man is peeking around the wall that separates the main cave to the sacred one. 'It's one of the strange ones,' she says, trembling in my arms. 'A new one.'

But something about the man seems different to the strange ones. He looks normal, not abnormally pale. He isn't floating off the ground, and isn't doing any of the other things that they normally do. Plus he seems to be able to see us. Only the white bear that I am sure isn't a white bear at all, has ever noticed us. All the others, the ones that look sort of normal, they seem to drift around, not aware that we are here, or they are in our home.

I step back as the young man walks around the wall, entering the cave. He has his hands outstretched in front of him, his palms facing me.

'Hello,' he says in a strange accent. 'My name is Danug.'

He seems to speak my words, but deep down, I know he doesn't, it is just the magic, or whatever has trapped us here, that is translating for him. Which is the first good thing it has ever done, because he is the first person, except for the strange ones, I have seen for a long time.

'Hello,' I reach out and take his hands in mine. They are flesh. 'You're not a strange one,' I say, staring into his eyes in wonder. 'You are normal like me.'

He laughs. 'What a weird thing to say,' he smiles. 'But how is it you come to look like…' he stops speaking and blushes.

'Like who?'

He shakes his head. 'You just look like someone I know.'

'Who?'

'A woman I met years when I was little more than a boy. My cousin and I travelled to see her and her mate, and their people, the Zelendonii, this year, and were just heading home. To the Mamutoi.'

'The Mamutoi? I have heard of them. But tell me, what's this woman's name?'

'Ayla.'

'Ayla? And is she pretty?' I blush as he has just told me I look like her, and it sounds like I am fishing for compliments. 'Or is she ordinary looking like me,' I add.

'She is very beautiful, and could never be ordinary looking. You look very similar to her. Almost like you could be related to her.'

'I don't have a relative called Ayla. Or at least, I don't think I do. Though I guess, it has been so long, anything is possible.'

'What's been so long?' Danug shakes his head. 'And where am I? I was with my cousin, Druwez, and then found myself here. I remember a painting that looked like you; it disappeared and replaced the empty cave I was in to this one full of people.'

'You were in the cave?'

He nods. 'Does this cave join that one?'

'Sort of,' I chuckle. 'But not how you think it does.'

'Shana,' my little sister had been edging forward while we were talking. 'Is he a strange one, he doesn't look like one.' She smiles at Danug and then blushes.

'No, I don't think he is Shala. I think he is just a normal man, who found our cave and then somehow was brought here. And if he's found a way to get to us, then maybe,' I smile as excitement fills me. 'Maybe, we could find a way out.'

'A way out of what?' Danug shakes his head. 'I don't understand, why would you want to leave the cave in winter?'

'Because we can't,' I answer. 'Because we're trapped.'

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'What do you mean trapped?' Danug asks as he looks around at my people. 'How can you be trapped?' He walks to the mouth of the cave and tries to step onto the path. The something that always pushes us back, does it to him too. 'Hey.' He bounces off the barrier, for that is what it feels like, and falls onto the stone floor.

'Like I said,' I say, offering him my hand to pull him up. 'We are trapped in this cave. And we have been trapped here for years.'

'But…'

I shrug. 'I don't know why, or how, I just know that it is the truth. Time passes in here like it does out there. My little sister Shala was only a couple of years old when it happened, and I only ten. Now she is the one who is ten and I am eighteen.'

'But if you can't go outside, then you won't be able to hunt or gather food so surely you should be…'

'Dead?' I smile sadly and shake my head. 'It is fickle, whatever has happened to us. For the years pass, but each day, the food that has been consumed the day before, the water drank, is back in storage. For the last eight years, we have had to eat the same food day after day, week after week, month after month. We long for something new.' She points further down the path. 'You can't see them from here, but strawberries grow down there. I remember when I was little, going down there with my mother to pick them. Stuffing them into my mouth. They were so juice that they used to stain my tunic but my mother would just laugh. But we can't get to the now, and have none in storage. I long for those strawberries.'

Danug frowns. 'But how is this possible? This doesn't happen, it's not natural.'

'But still it has happened.'

'But…'

'I know, it is strange, but even our leader doesn't understand it, and she was in service to the Mother. The simple truth is, we are trapped, have been trapped for eight long long years, and will probably be trapped until we die.'

'So am I trapped too?'

I shake my head and look at him with sorrowful eyes. 'I don't know, I really don't know.'

He walks into the cave, heading for the back, the small cave. But the leader has become aware of his presence and isn't going to let him go easily.'

'A stranger,' she says, planting her feet in his path. 'And not a strange one.'

He tries to push pass her, but she moves back into his way. 'Who are you?' she demands.

'I… he stutters. 'I am Danug of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi, and in the name of Mut, I greet you.'

'Mut?' the leader spits on the ground. 'The Mother has abandoned us. We serve her no longer.'

Danug steps backward. 'How can you not serve the Mother?' he gasps.

'Because we hate her for what she has done to us.'

He turns around and glares at me. 'And you? Do you hate the Mother?'

I shake my head. 'I do not think that the Mother has done this to us,' I say. 'I think whatever has happened; it is to do with the strange ones.'

'The strange ones? Who are they?'

'You will see,' I say. 'Tomorrow, you will see.'

'Tomorrow?' he shakes his head. 'I'm not staying here until tomorrow.' He pushes the leader gently out of the way, and marches to the small cave. We follow him.

'There is no way out,' the leader sneers. 'You are as trapped as we are now.'

I enter the small cave to see Danug touching the far wall.

'I don't understand,' he says, planting his hands on the wall. Pushing his body up against it. 'I touched the wall and arrived here, so why can't I touch it again and get back to Druwez?'

'Because you are trapped,' the leader snorts. 'Foolish man.' She leaves the cave.

He turns around. 'Am I trapped?'

I shrug. 'I don't know but it seems like you are. But maybe, a way out will come for you. You serve the Mother still. Maybe because you are here, she will take pity on you and save you. And save us too.' I start to cry. 'Because I don't want to stay here. I don't want to be trapped.'

He puts his arms around me and whispers into my hair. 'The Mother is good, she will rescue us.'


	2. Chapter 2

'I think you should tell me everything,' Danug says as I pass him a bowl of the rabbit stew I've been eating for eight years.

I nod. 'Well I guess I should begin by introducing myself. I'm Shana and the little girl is Shala, my little sister. This is our hearth, we used to share it with our mother, but she died not long after everything happened.'

'And what did happen?'

'Well, I'm not really sure. My people were a normal sort of people, probably not too different to your Mamutoi. Just a collection of caves that met every summer for meetings and spent the winters surviving because enough food had been collected. This cave was an old one, one of the very first established. We were well respected amongst the Pripyia.'

'The Pripyia?'

'My people. This cave used to be the third cave of the Pripyia and I guess we still are. Though we have had no contact with the rest of them since it happened. Since the sky burned. I remember playing with a friend, when there was a noise above our heads. We looked up to see the sky had gone a weird colour. We were frightened, everyone was, so we ran back to the cave. The leader shut the barrier when everyone was inside, and didn't open it for at least half a day. When she looked though, the sky had turned back to blue. Seeing that beautiful sunny day made me forget about what I'd seen, so I ran from the cave, shouting my friend to come play. I ran into the barrier.'

'And what about the strange ones?'

'Ah,' she smiles. 'They are just that, strange. But you will see them for yourself tomorrow. They come every morning.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Druwez woke up to find he was alone in the cave. Looking around, he saw a cup of cold tea but no Danug.

'He's probably outside,' he reasoned. 'Or in that little cave.' He picked up the tea and started to sip it until he felt the urge to empty his bladder. He stood up, and put on his outside clothes and went outside.

Deep snow filled the valley but he could see footmarks in the snow.

'Stupid fool,' he muttered to himself as he emptied his bladder. 'He's gone hunting. He should have woken me, and I would have gone with him. Far safer like that.' He entered the cave again, and put some more kindling on the fire, realising they were already getting short and he would have to go and find some more. He'd seen some trees not far from the cave, and knew he'd be able to cut some of the lower branches with a hand axe.

But first, he ate some of the dried meat and made some more tea. Then dragging himself back up, he shuddered as he went outside again.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I leave Danug to think while I tend to the needs of the cave. As I thought, many of them have morning after headaches and a few are also feeling sick.

'We're dying Shana,' they moan, their eyes only opening into slits.

'My head hurts.'

'Shana, I need you.'

Some of them though, just keep drinking. That is the way of life in this cave now. Some are perpetually drunk, the only way to hide from the reality of our lives.

But the children are different.

'Is it true that there's a stranger?' one asks.

'And he isn't a strange one,' another adds.

'Has he come to save us?' a little girl whispers. I remember my mother delivering her during the first days. She doesn't remember life as it was, only this abnormality.

'I don't know,' I answer truthfully, rubbing her little head.

But now, no one is calling me so I go to my favourite place and I stare out over the valley. And I see two sets of footprints in the snow.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Druwez' pack was filled with cut up branches, and he was just heading back to the cave when he heard someone in nearby bushes.

'Danug,' he shouted, but saw a girl walking toward him.

She stopped when she saw him and said something he didn't understand.

'I don't know your language,' he said, shaking his head.

'Ma- Mamutoi?' she asked, stuttering over the word a bit. 'You speak Mamutoi?'

'Yes.' He smiled.

She smiled back at him. 'My mother is Mamutoi. She taught me to speak it.'

'She is? What's her name? Maybe I've heard of her.'

'She was known as Beytie back then, but everyone calls her Beytia now.'

'Beytie?' he frowned. 'Beytie?' he shook his head. 'No, I've not heard of her. What camp was she from?'

'I can't remember.' She grinned. 'So you are Mamutoi?'

He nodded. 'I am Druwez of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi. And who are you?'

'Oh,' she blushed. 'I should have told you that right away. I am Bretie of the Fourth Cave of the Pripyia. I am very pleased to meet you Druwez.'

'And I'm pleased to meet you.' He stared at her for a while, but then remembered Danug. 'You haven't seen a big brute of a man wandering around have you. I'm travelling with my friend Danug, but I think he's gone hunting.'

She shook her head. 'Maybe he went with one of the people of the cave you are staying with. What cave are you staying with? The Fifth?'

'No, he's gone on his own. We haven't met any of your people before. We stayed the night in a cave up in the cliff.'

She paled. 'You stayed in the Third Cave,' she stepped back away from him.

He nodded. 'But from the look on your face, I guess we shouldn't be. Is it a sacred cave to the Pripyia?'

'No.' she was still backing away. 'Are you a spirit?'

He laughed.

'You are, aren't you? You've come to trap me but I won't let you take me.' She turned and started to run.

'Hey, come back, he shouted as he sprinted after her. 'I'm not a spirit; I'm flesh and blood like you.' He managed to grab her by the hand.

She shrieked but then looked down at his hand holding hers. 'You are flesh,' she said. She still looked frightened.

'Of course I am, why would you think otherwise?'

'Because you are staying in that cave.'

'Is there a problem with the cave?'

She nodded and gulped. 'That cave is filled with the spirits of the people of the Third Cave. No one knows what happened to them. One summer they just didn't arrive at the meeting, some went to find out where they were but found the cave emptied, all the hearths and the belongings of the people missing. Ever since then, lights have been seen coming from there, and if you get close enough, you can hear the people.'

'But…' he remembered the mysterious light that Danug had seen the night before. 'The cave is haunted?'

She nodded. 'You and your friend shouldn't stay there, or the spirits will take you. You could come and stay with my people, in the Fourth cave.' She blushed.

Druwez nodded. 'Yes, I don't want to stay in a cave of spirits. I will have to go back and get our things and my friend but could you wait here for me?'

'Okay, but I'm not going to come any closer to that cave. And you need to hurry.'

Druwez left his pack with her, and headed back to the cave.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

'Is that Druwez?' someone says next to me.

I turn to see Danug pointing into the valley.

'It is, it's Druwez. Druwez,' he shouts. 'Druwez.'

'He can't hear you,' I say.

Danug shakes his head. 'He has to hear me. Druwez.' He screams his cousin's name. 'I'm here Druwez.'

'It's no use Danug.'

'But… Druwez,' he shouts again.

I watch as the other young man reaches the path, and starts to climb it toward the cave. Toward us.

'He's coming,' Danug grins.

The young man is coming closer and closer, and Danug is shouting so fiercely, his face has reddened. But Druwez shows no sign that he hears him, and as he walks closer, he starts to disappear. Slightly at first, like the colours blending together on an evening, but suddenly, I can see right through him. And then he is gone.

Danug stares at the spot where we last saw his cousin and then turns to me. He frowns. 'I don't like it here,' he says.

'Neither do I,' I comment. 'And I've been stuck here for eight years.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Druwez left Bretie in the valley, and started to walk back to the cave. As he came to the small path, he thought someone shouted his name but kept walking, thinking it was only the wind.

As soon as he entered the cave, timidly this time after hearing that it was haunted, he saw that Danug hadn't returned. Shaking his head, he headed to his furs and started to pack them. And did the same with Danug's. That was when he saw Danug's spear shooter.

He picked it up. 'If he'd gone hunting, he would have taken this with him,' he said to himself. 'As it is here, then he can't have gone hunting.' He looked toward the back of the cave. 'Danug,' he said as he stood up and started to walk toward the small cave. 'I bet he's fallen asleep in there,' he grumbled. 'While looking at the painting that looks like Ayla.'

He stepped into the small cave and found it empty. He frowned and was about to turn around when he noticed the painting. Next to the girl who looked a bit like Ayla was another figure now, a big brute of a man who he recognised immediately as Danug.

'What the…'

He stepped closer and reached out to touch the image. But at the last moment, he pulled his hand away as a light seemed to flash in the cave. He stepped backward and then stumbled out of the small cave. Running to the packs, he grabbed both, and their weapons and ran from the cave.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I give Danug my mother's old furs to sleep in, thankfully they are clean enough. But throughout the night, I keep being woken as he tosses and turns. I'm relieved when he finally takes the furs to the mouth of the cave. I join him there just as the sun rose in the east.

'Good morning,' he says, his voice heavy with tiredness and worry. 'When can we expect the strange ones to appear?'

'Any time now,' I answer, already listening out for the first screams.

I don't have long to wait.

'Shana,' voices shout. 'Make them go away.'

I sigh.

Danug stands up and walks into the cave, right up to where the bear like man is standing.

'Who are you?' he shouts. 'Why are you doing this?'

The strange one lifts up his arms and reaches toward us.

I grab Danug's hand and try to drag him backward but at the same moment, he touches the strange one.

And there is a flash of light.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The light blinds my eyes, so I've squeezed them tightly shut but when I open them, I realise I am no longer in the cave. But everything around me looks so strange, that I have no idea where I am. Next to me, Danug is looking around, a frown on his face.

And I'm still holding his hand.

'What happened?' he asks.

'You touched a strange one,' I say, snatching my hand away and blushing. 'You touched one, and there was a flash of light and now we are here.' I shiver as a wind blows around me. 'This place is…'

'Strange,' Danug finishes for me.

And indeed it is. There seem to be stone shelters lining a stone pathway, but stuff is peeling of the shelters and the pathway is full of plant life. There are what looks like cave paintings nearby, hung in the air, and a big thing, round like the sun, but white, it has little boats around it. And there is no one around. Or a sound, except for the constant wind, and flapping noises. There's birds, and other small animals but nothing else. And there seems to be debris littered around. What looks similar to a leather doll lays discarded by the side of the path, bits of white stuff flutter in the wind, and there are weird shaped objects, big things, in lines along the path, they have brown stains on them.

I turn when I hear a noise and see a horse, the kind my people used to hunt, walking along the path. It stares at us, and then turns away, seemingly not frightened about seeing two humans. It stops by a bush and starts to chew at the leaves.

And over everything is the only familiar thing, a greying sky, with white clouds skittering pass.

'Where are we?' Danug asks.

I shake my head. 'I do not know.' I start to walk to one of the stone shelters, stepping over what looks like a hide boot. 'Let's look around,' I say.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

We walk down the path, toward some of the stone shelters. There's a painting next to what I can only assume is an entrance, and Danug reaches out to touch it.

'Don't,' I say. It's just a feeling I have, but I don't think he, or I, should touch the painting which is red on white and shows no scene, just loads of joined up lines. I stand in front of the doorway and shudder. 'I don't think we should go in either,' I decide, speaking this out loud.

'Why?'

I turn to look at Danug. 'Just a feeling I've got, there is something dangerous in that shelter and all the others. I think it would be better if we stayed outside for now.'

'What? Like a bear?'

I shake my head. 'I don't know what like, it's just a feeling. Maybe the Mother is warning me not to enter.'

He nods, and stride off down the path.

Soon we come to a small meadow, well that's what it looks like to me. There isn't so much debris here, the grass is green, and tehre's a little pool of water. I watch as Danug goes toward some bushes wehre wild berries grow.

A loud voice shouts out something behind us, and I turn to see a man dressed in strange clothes and pointing a stick at us. He says something again.

'I don't understand you,' I say, shaking my head.

But Danug seems able to understand. 'He said, don't eat the berries,' he tells me. 'He's speaking in the language of the Sharamudoi, more or less.'

'But…'

The man says something else.

'He says we shouldn't eat or drink anything and should come with him. He said something about a tour and it being late but I don't really understand what he meant by that.'

'Okay,' I respond, frightened as the men that were standing behind the man surround us.

'He wants us to walk,' Danug explains after the man says something else.

We walk back down the pathway, passed the shelters and more shelters until we come to one of the box shaped things, but this one doesn't have brown stains over it. One of the men climbs in, and puts out a hand toward me.

I shake my head, with fear. 'It's some sort of animal or monster,' I say, trying to back away, but one of the other men sticks one of the sticks into my back.

The man shouts.

'He says we have to get in it.'

I nod, swallow hard and take the man's hand and climb into the belly of the beast. He ties me down against a seat and does the same to Danug when he gets in. And then ties himself down and smiles at me.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

This animal that I sit in runs fast, I can see the shelters and trees whizzing pass the see through barrier that separates us from outside. Danug asks the man about this, and told me the van, that's what he called it, runs on something called wheels. Circular shapes. Strange as it is, it certainly makes us go fast. He also told Danug that it isn't an animal, but something called a machine but I can hear it growling, and feel it through my body, so I know he is wrong.

We soon come to more shelters, with more people scattered around. Getting out of the animal, we are taken into a shelter and told to sit down.

Then the man starts asking us questions.

'He wants to know if we lost our tour,' Danug says, frowning as he tries to understand what a tour is.

I don't understand the word either, but don't really care because someone, a woman I think, though it is hard to tell when they are wearing such strange clothes, brings us food and drink.

The cup is made out of some sort of hard substance that Danug says is clay. And so is the platter. The cup has some sort of hot tea, though it tastes strange, and there are white things, on the platter. Some sort of grain substance made into bread, the man told us that word, filled with thin slices of meat. I must say, it is nice, especially after eight years of rabbit stew.

And while I eat, Danug talks to the man.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I continue to eat the food, the things they call sandwiches but when the man says one word, I splutter.

'Pripyia?'

He shakes his head. 'Pripyat,' he says, and then other words I don't understand.

'He says we were in Pripyat. From what I can understand, no one lives in Pripyat, not now anyway. Not for a long time. There was some sort of accident, I don't know what, but it made the city not liveable in. He says we are in a camp outside the…' he stops talking and says something to the man who answers.

'Outside something called the exclusion zone. No one is allowed to live in Pripyat but sometimes people visit. He thought that's why we were there, that we'd wandered off from a group, but I told him what happened.'

'And?'

'I think he thinks I am mad, but has sent for someone else to talk to us.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

'Where are they?' a man rushes into the room, a white open tunic on his skinny body, and wild hair. 'Where are they?'

'He's speaking S'Armunai,' I say, looking at Danug. 'I can understand him.'

'Is this them? Yes, I can see that they are. Are you really from the Ice Age, or is this some king of trick?'

'Ice Age?'

'When the glaciers spread over the land,' the man says hurriedly. He steps closer and peers down at us. Putting something on his face, so they dangle over his nose and ears. They have two sun like cirlces over his eyes. 'And what do you mean, I'm speaking Sarmuna?'

'S'Armunai,' Danug corrects him. 'The S'Armunai are one of the people Druwez, my cousin, and I met on our travels. You are speaking their language.'

The man shook his head. 'I am speaking English, but maybe…' He grins. 'Interesting. I would like to hear more about the S'Armunai.'

'Who are you?' I ask.

'Yes, yes, quite right,' he says. 'We should introduce ourselves first. My name is Professor James Ridling, I'm originally from England but have been studying something here since the disaster. You can call me James.'

'I'm Shana,' I tell him. 'I am from the Third Cave of the Pripyia. But from what you tell me, the place where we were found, that is where my people live, the city called Pripyat.'

'And I am Danug of the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi, Flint Knapper and son of Nezzie, who is the mate of the male leader of the Lion Camp, Talut, of whose hearth I lived growing up, brother of Latie, Rugie, Ranec and Rydad.'

'And,' I ask, half joking because everyone knows that the Mamutoi are into their ties.

Danug frowns. 'And traveller from the Mamutoi to the Zelendonii and to here,' he adds with a serious expression on his face.

All introductions done, I get to the point. 'Can you get us home?'

James sighs. 'I don't know.' He sadly smiles at me. 'The Ice Age was thousands of years ago.'

I frown.

'More seasons that you could count,' he adds. 'More than the visible stars in the sky.'

I gasp, and look around.

'This is your future, though I think we have more ties to you than we should. I have something to show you.'

He leads us down what to me looks a bit like a narrow cave, into another room. Then he presses something in the wall, and a barrier opens with a sucking sound, and we walk through. This room is big and it is divided by more of the transparent barriers that the animal I sat in. The van. On the side of the room we are in, are seats, and on the other side are people, in what looks like little caves.

I grip Danug's arm. 'That's them,' I say. 'That's the strange ones. The more human ones.'

I run over to the barrier and press my face against it. In her little cave is the woman, with white scars on her face.

'This is Irina,' James says as he walks up to the barrier. 'She used to work in the Chernobyl Power Plant, and was there on the day of the incident.'

I turn to look at him. 'What incident? What happened?'

He sighs. Chernobyl used to make electricity to make things run using radioactive materials…'

'I frown. 'I don't understand.'

'Electricity is invisible, as is radiation…'

'Like spirits?' Danug asks.

'Maybe,' James replies. 'Yes, a bit like spirits. They used the spirits to make life easier for people…'

'But that's terrible,' I comment. 'The spirit world is a sacred place and shouldn't be used by us.'

'I agree,' James says. 'I didn't used to, but that was before the incident when everything went wrong. You could say the spirits got free and made a lot of people ill, people like Irina. Radiation is a bit like invisible fire, it burnt the people who came into contact with it. Burnt them inside and outside. Many of them died. Irina was initially lucky though, until she, along with the others here, started disappearing every day.'

'And appearing in my cave, scaring the life out of us.'

'Yes, they have told me about the cave people they've seen. I guess you are one of them.'

'Yes, but…'

'It has been twenty five years now since the incident, but I think Irina and the others are in some sort of time warp. They haven't aged or changed in all those years. For them, everything has stayed the same.'

'Like in my cave,' I gasp. 'Outside, the seasons change, but inside, the food is renewed every day. We do get older but have not been able to leave the cave. We've been trapped there.'

James shakes his head. 'Like these people.'

'But where's the bear man?'

James blinks. 'Who?'

'The bear man. He looks like a white bear, but has no fur. He has a bubble on his head.'

'There is no one here like that. But…'

He walks over to the see through barrier and presses something. 'Irina, have you ever seen a man in a hazard suit when you've visited the cave people.'

'Yes,' she says. 'Yes, I have. He comes here every day and touches us, and then we disappear and go to see the cave people for a while.'

'But I have never seen him, either in here or on the videos.'

She shrugs.

'Why have you never said about him before?'

'I thought you knew.'

'No, I didn't.'

'So,' I sum up. 'You have never seen the bear man, but he comes every day and touches them. But what I want to know is why? And where is he now?'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Bretie took Druwez back to her cave, where he was welcomed. When the people found out where he'd spent the night, they were initially a bit frightened but soon saw he wasn't a ghost and still welcomed him.

But they wanted to know all about the cave.

'It seems pretty normal,' he said. 'Well at first anyway. It was a bit dusty, but that didn't bother us. But the small cave at the back was different. There is a…'

'Painting,' the leader nodded his head. 'Yes, we have seen it. It seems to show those that lived in the third cave. The ones that are spirits now.'

'Yes, I thought that but…'

The leader arched an eyebrow, while Bretie leant in nearer.

'When I went back to the cave after meeting Bretie, I realised my cousin couldn't have gone hunting so I thought he was in that small cave. I went to find him, thinking he had fallen asleep, but he wasn't there but a painting of him was. I reached out to touch it, but I felt I shouldn't and that was when I saw a flash of light. I ran from there.'

The leader nodded. 'It sounds like your cousin has been taken by the spirits and that cave and that painting are some sort of way into the spirit world. I'm glad you managed to get away.'

Druwez shuddered. 'So am I, but Danug didn't.'

'No,' another voice said.

Druwez turned to see a limping man walking toward them, leaning on a worked tree branch.

'You have to go back and save your cousin,' the man said.

'But Pripyiah,' the leader stood up, and let the man sit down. 'Pripyiah, it would be dangerous.'

'Yes,' Pripyiah said. 'It would, but if he doesn't, then he will never see his cousin again. I have meditated on what happened with the third cave for a long time, and I do not believe that their disappearance has been caused by spirits. Something else has caused it, and that something has to be retified. I feel someone, somewhere, is calling out for help, but none is coming.'

Druwez gasped. 'Danug?'

Pripyiah shook his head. 'No, another but not one of the third cave, someone else, far removed from us. He is the cause of what has happened, and he needs help. Once he is free, then everything will go back to normal. But for that, you have to go back to the cave, and help him.'

'But…'

'There is no other way.'

Druwez gulped and then nodded.

'I will go with him,' Bretie said. 'Let me help him.'

The leader started shaking his head, but stopped when he saw the look on Pripyiah's face.

'He will need help.'

'But it's so dangerous.'

'The Mother is with her, she will keep her safe.'

'So I can help him?' she smiled at Druwez.

Druwez shook his head. 'It is bad enough that I have to go there, but I don't want to bring someone else into this situation. She could be lost to you forever.'

Pripyiah smiled. 'She needs to go but do not worry. I have a plan.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

'Why do you keep those people in those little caves?' I ask as we leave the room.

'Caves?' James laughs. 'Oh yes, I see. I suppose to you, they are a bit like caves. We keep them in there because of the radiation, the spirits that burn. The levels fluctuate throughout the day, but there is always dangerously high levels surrounding them. But it's strange, because they don't get any worse. They don't just not age, but health wise, they stay the same too. They aren't in pain, not much anyway, and the radiation does not seem to hurt them but it would hurt us, if they were allowed to leave the cubicles. The radiation has been building up over the years, when they first came here, they had quite low levels of exposure but now, it is much higher. I don't know why, it's a mystery.'

'The bear man.'

James turns to look at me. 'What?' He scratches his head.

'The bear man brings the spirits.' I frown. 'But if he does, then he is bringing it to my people too. But no one is ill.'

James stares at me and grabs my hand. 'You're right,' he says. 'You're right. All these years, all the mystery surrounding the levels of radiation and it took two people from the past to tell me it is caused by…'

'But you didn't know about him.'

'No.'

'So you couldn't have known.'

James smiles. 'No, I couldn't. But now I do and that means that maybe we can sort it out. If we find the man in the hazard suit.'

'But where could he be?'

James sighs. 'With that much radiation around him, there is only one place he can be. Chernobyl.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOO


	3. Chapter 3

'Halt,' a voice barks behind us.

I turn to see the man who took us from the abandoned place, the one who seemed to be in charge. But now he is speaking in S'Armunai.

'What is it, Colonel Alexandrov?'

'I've heard all the prisoners have to say, and know that they have come into contact with radiation. They must be quarantined.'

'What does quarantined mean?' I ask.

James sighs.

'Professor Ridling, they are to be put in one of the cubicles. For our safety. If the radiation spreads, then we will all get ill and I won't allow that.'

'But…'

'Now Professor.'

Other men appear behind the man, the Colonel, and start to walk toward us.

'What is he saying?' I shriek.

'They think you are radioactive, that the spirits are surrounding you and make everyone else ill.'

I gasp. 'Spirits? Am I surrounded by these spirits?' I look around me, at my feet, my hands, my arms.

'I don't know.'

'Is there no way to tell?'

'I also don't like the idea of spirits surrounding me,' Danug adds.

James ignores him, and grins at me. 'A Geiger counter. That will tell us, that's what we need. Colonel, these people should not be locked into cubicles until they've been tested. We need a Geiger counter.'

'I don't think…'

'Colonel Alexandrov, a Geiger counter will be bought here. Do not try to block my wish, you might be part of the army, and I a scientist, but I work for the Russian Government, for the President. Do not think to disobey me in this.'

The two men stare at each other, but then the Colonel lowers his eyes.

'Fine,' he says. 'Get a Geiger counter but after being in contact with that Hazard suit man, they are sure to be radioactive and I will have them quarantined soon.'

OOOOOOOOOOOO

'You will stay here with our people for the next week,' Pripyiah told Druwez. 'And in that time, you and Bretie will do as I say, you will eat what I give you and stay close to me for instruction. After that time, you will be ready to go back to the haunted cave.'

'What instruction?' Druwez asked.

'I will teach you to meditate, how to relax. You need to do this, or the spirits in that cave will overcome you and you will become ill with an internal eating disease.'

'I don't want to get ill,' Bretie frowned.

'Fear not, young Bretie. It will all be okay. The Mother is with you and will protect you, just as though the next week is spent as she has ordained.'

'What food will you give us?' Druwez asked.

'You are to eat mostly whole grains, but I have a small amount of sea vegetables that should last the week. Seaweeds, kelp and sea lettuces mainly, made into soups, or stews with the grain. And of course, salt.'

'Salt?' Druwez exclaimed. 'But it is too precious, too rare.'

'And necessary.'

'I have nothing to swap that's worth anywhere near as much as salt.'

'If you manage to do what I think you will do, then that is payment enough.'

'I don't understand.' Druwez frowned.

'I believe, or at least the Mother has told me, that your cousin isn't the only one who has been taken by the spirits. So too are the people of the third cave. And you will bring them back.'

'But… how?'

'That is all part of the plan,' Pripyiah said, smiling at the two. 'But I will tell you off that nearer the time, for now, your training must start.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

A man comes into the room, carrying something in his hand.

'Just stand still,' James advises us. 'He will wave it over you, and we will know if you have been exposed to radiation.'

I nod, but still flinch when the man starts to move the object us and down my body. A crackling sound, a bit like a fire, comes from it. Then he does the same to Danug.

'Just background radiation Colonel,' he says.

'What?' The colonel grabs the object from the man and starts to wave it around. 'But,' he splutters. 'You should be radioactive, you've been exposed. You must have been exposed. I was sure that you were radioactive.'

'Well they're not,' James says, trying to stop himself from smiling. 'Now, Colonel Alexandrov, if you will excuse us, I think these people could do with a rest, and it won't be in a quarantine cubicle.

'But… they should go in one anyway, just in case…'

'In case what Colonel?'

'I…' he stares at the floor. 'Fine, take them to the accommodation block, but I want an armed guard outside their rooms at all times. No matter what. These people aren't from this time, we don't want them wandering around. It's for their protection as much as ours.'

'Whatever you say Colonel,' James says and then grins at us. 'You will have to stay with us for a while, until we understand what is happening, but there is no reason why you shouldn't be comfortable.' He starts to walk away.

'Professor Ridling.'

James turns to look at the Colonel. 'Yes?'

'They should start taking anti-radiation tablets.'

James nods. 'Yes, they should. I will arrange that once I have them settled.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We are led down the inside pathway that James tells me is called a corridor and taken to the other side of the camp. Here I am given a shelter of my own, a room with a raised platform for sleeping on, though it is a lot softer than I am used to and is covered not by furs but some sort of material. And on top, there is what looks like a cloud, James puts more material over it and lays it over the platform. There is even a smaller cloud for me to rest my head on.

'Get some sleep,' he says but blushes and hurries away when I start to undress.

The platform is softer than I thought, I find when I get in; it adapts itself to the contours of my body and lulls me to sleep.

The next morning, I wake and dress and then sit on the edge of the platform for a while but then getting fed up, leave the room. There's a man standing outside my room, who smiles at me when he sees me, and takes me to a bigger room, where tables are. A diliscious smell is wafting through the air.

I see James sitting at a table with Danug and walk over to them.

'Ah good, you are here,' James says and pulls out a seat for me to sit on.

I timidly sit down, not used to a seat with legs and so high off the ground.

'What would you like to eat?' he asks. 'You know, the Russians have a saying, 'eat breakfast yourself, share dinner with a friend but give supper to your enemy!' Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.'

I nod. 'My mother used to insist I always ate breakfast when I was little, when I just wanted to go outside and play in the little pool, she would make me eat. Even though I wasn't hungry, she used to say it was the most important meal of the day too.'

'Really? How interesting.' He smiled. 'Danug here has got a Russian delicacy, blini's with sour cream and jam. Would you like the same or would you rather have some toast like me? Or you could have some rye bread, with cheese, eggs and meat, or a selection of all of them.'

I shake my head. 'I don't know.'

'I will order you all of it,' he smiles. 'I can see that Danug is nearly finished his, and still looks hungry, so I will order extra for him too.

Danug smiles a sour cream smile and cuts a bit of the blini with his eating knife, he spears it up and pops it into his mouth.

'You really should try the knife and fork Danug,' James says. 'You would find eating a lot easier.' He lifts up a shiny knife and another implement that looks a bit like a teasel. He leant forward to his own food. 'You use the fork to anchor the food,' he says, sticking the teasel like implement into his toast. Whatever toast is. Then he cuts the toast with the knife so that a small amount surrounds the fork which he lifts up and pops into his mouth. He chews and then swallows. And then smiles. 'Easy,' he says. 'Why don't you try it Danug.'

Danug picks up the implements in front of him and warily looks at them.

'Just have a go,' James smiles as he stands up. 'I will be back in a moment with your breakfasts.'

OOOOOOOOOOO

After a long day of meditation, Druwez sat next to Bretie eating a bowl of seaweed soup, while listening to Pripyiah tell a story.

'This is a story that you all will have heard,' the holy man said. 'Except for our visitor Druwez. It is called Baba-Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair.'

'Ooh, Druwez, that's a scary story,' a boy shouted. 'Maybe Bretie will hold your hand so you aren't so afraid.'

Everyone laughed at this, everyone except for Druwez and Bretie, who shuffled a little apart.

Pripyiah looked sternly at the boy. 'I seem to remember you wet yourself when you first heard the story.'

The boy blushed and looked at the floor.

Pripyiah started to spin his tale. 'A long time ago there lived a Trade Master and his mate; they had one child at their hearth, a girl called Vasilisa. One day the mother placed a hide doll in the child's hands, and said, "My child, I am dying. Take this doll as my blessing. Always keep it with you and never show it to anybody. If anything bad happens to you, give the doll food and ask her for guidance." Shortly afterwards the mother died.

'That's not scary,' Druwez interrupted. 'It's just sad.'

'Sshh,' the holy man said as he continued the story. 'The Trade Master soon became lonely and decided to mate again. He mated a woman who's own made had died as he thought she would be a good mother. But both she and her two daughters were jealous of Vasilisa's beauty. They made her bring water from the frozen river in winter, or work outside in the hot sun when everyone else was inside resting. They did this so she would grow thin and her face turn ugly in the wind and the sun. But Vasilisa became more beautiful every day. For each day she gave her doll food and asked for advice. Having finished eating, the doll would help with the tasks and even bring Vasilisa herbs to prevent sunburn. As the years passed, Vasilisa grew ever more beautiful as the women's hatred of her intensified. One day, Vasilisa's father went on a trading journey and his mate decided to leave their cave and move to a hut on the edge of a dense birch forest. But this was not just any birch forest, for in this forest lived the terrifying witch, Baba-Yaga. A witch who ate people like others ate chicken.

'Witches aren't real,' the boy said but as Pripyiah started talking again, he ran to his hearth and climbed in his furs.

'Every day, the woman sent Vasilisa into the forest, but the girl always returned safe and sound with the guidance of her magic doll. Then one night, the woman crept to the fire and extinguished it. And then she said in a loud voice. "It's impossible to finish our work in the darkness. Somebody must go to Baba-Yaga and ask for a light." "I'm not going," said the woman's first daughter, who was stitching a hide. "I can see." "And I'm not going," said the woman's second daughter, who was weaving cloth, "I can see." So Vasilisa was thrown out into the dark forbidding forest. Despite her fear, she fed her magic doll and asked for its advice. "Don't be afraid, Vasilisa," said the doll. "Go to Baba-Yaga and ask her to give you a light."'

'I wouldn't go,' a woman chuckled.

'All that night, Vasilisa walked nervously through the forest holding the doll who guided her path. Then suddenly, she saw a man rushing by. His face and clothes were white and he was riding a white horse. As he passed the first light of dawn appeared across the sky. Then, another man came by. His face and clothes were red and he was riding a red horse. As he passed the sun began to rise. Vasilisa had never seen such strange men and she was very surprised. She walked all day, until at last she came to Baba-Yaga's hut. A fence made of human bones surrounded the hut. It was crowned with human skulls. Vasilisa was terribly afraid. Suddenly, another man galloped by. His face and clothes were black and he was riding a black horse. As he passed, night descended. As the sky darkened the eyes of the skulls began to glow. Their light illuminated the forest. Vasilisa trembled, she wanted to run but her legs would not move. Almost immediately she heard a hideous noise. The earth shook, the trees groaned and there was Baba-Yaga. She stopped and sniffed the air. "I smell a human!" she cried. "Who is here?" Vasilisa stepped forward, trembling with fear. She said, "I am, Vasilisa. My stepmother sent me to you to ask for a light." "I know of her." Baba-Yaga replied. "Stay with me for a while. If you work well, I will give you light. If you do not, I will cook you and eat you." As they entered the hut, Baba-Yaga ordered Vasilisa to bring her some food. There was enough to feed ten men; she collected also collected raspberry wine and beera. Baba-Yaga ate and drank everything. She left Vasilisa nothing but a small piece of dried meat. "I'm tired," Baba-Yaga said. "Tomorrow, Vasilisa, you must clean, sweep the hut, cook the supper and wash my hides." "Then," she added, "You must go to my grain storage and separate seed by seed the mildewed grain from the good grain, and mind that you remove all the black bits. If you don't complete these tasks I will eat you." Soon Baba-Yaga started snoring, her long nose rattled against the roof of the hut. Vasilisa took her doll out of her pocket, gave it some of the dried bit of meat and said, "Please help me. Baba-Yaga has given me an impossible task to do and if I fail she will eat me." The doll replied, "Don't be afraid, Vasilisa, eat your supper and go to bed. Mornings are wiser than evenings." Although Vasilisa woke early the next morning, Baba-Yaga was already up and leaving. Vasilisa went to the grain storage and found the doll picking out the last black bits. The other tasks were also fulfilled. The doll said, "All you have to do now is prepare the supper and after that you can rest." Vasilisa thanked the doll and went to prepare supper. She cooked the food, laid the table and waited. As the skulls' eyes began to shine, the trees groaned, the earth trembled, and there was Baba-Yaga. "Have you done what I told you?" she asked Vasilisa. "See for yourself," replied the girl. Baba-Yaga was very upset, for she wanted to eat the girl but the tasks were all completed. Hiding her anger, she said, "Very good," and then cried loudly, "My faithful servants grind the grains!" From nowhere three pairs of hands appeared. They took the grains and vanished. Baba-Yaga ate the supper and said to Vasilisa, "Tomorrow you must do the same tasks and then you must go to the store room and sort out the dirt from the poppy seeds." The next morning Baba-Yaga left again. Vasilisa, with the help of her doll, finished the tasks. In the evening the old woman came back and checked everything over. Three pairs of hands appeared. They took the bin of poppy seeds and vanished. Baba-Yaga sat down to eat. "Why," she said, "do you sit there so quiet and still?" "I'm afraid to speak," said Vasilisa, "would you mind if I asked you some questions?" "Ask if you want," said Baba-Yaga, "but remember that not every question has a good answer." Vasilisa hesitated, "It's just that on my way here I saw a white horseman. Who was he?" "That was my Bright Day," answered Baba-Yaga. Vasilisa continued, "Then I saw a red horseman. Who was he?" "That was my Red Sun," answered Baba-Yaga. "And then a black horseman overtook me whilst I was standing outside your gate. Who was he?" "That was my Black Midnight," answered Baba-Yaga. "These horsemen are my faithful servants. Have you further questions?" Vasilisa remembered the three pairs of hands but remained quiet. "Now I have a question for you. How have you managed to carry out all the work so quickly?" Vasilisa replied, "My mother's blessing helped me." "I knew it," said Baba-Yaga. "You'd better be gone. I will not have people with blessings in my home." With that, the old woman pushed Vasilisa out of the hut and through the gate. Then she took one of the skulls, stuck it on the end of a stick and gave it to the girl, saying: "Here's a light for your stepmother and her daughters. That's what you came here for, isn't it?" She walked all day and by the evening she reached her home. As she approached the gates she was about to throw away the skull, but suddenly she heard a muffled voice say: "You must keep me, your stepmother and her daughters have need of me." The girl carried the skull into the house. As she entered, the skull fixed its eyes on the woman and her two daughters. Its eyes burnt them like fire. They tried to hide, but the piercing eyes followed them and never let them out of their sight. By morning nothing was left of the three women except three heaps of ash on the floor. Vasilisa was unharmed. She buried the skull in the garden and went to find shelter in the nearest cave. Here she lodged with an old woman. One day the old woman gave Vasilisa some flax. With it Vasilisa spun the most beautiful thread, so fine it was like hair. Then she weaved the thread into the most exquisite cloth. It was brilliant white, soft and so beautiful. Vasilisa gave it to the old woman and said: "Grandmother, you have been so kind to me, sell this cloth and keep the money." The old woman looked at it and said, "My child, this is too fine to sell. I am going to take it to the leader of their people." So she brought it to the leader as a gift who thanked the old woman and gave her many presents before sending her home. Impressed with the beautiful cloth, the leader tried to find someone who could make tunics from it. However everyone declined the work, as the cloth was too fine for them to handle. In the end the leader called the old woman and said, "You must also know how to sew the cloth as you made it." The old woman replied, "No. It was not my work. It was done by a girl I took in." So the leader asked the old woman to see if Vasilisa would make the garments. Vasilisa made the tunics and the old woman took them to the leader. As she waited for the old woman to return, one of the leader's men entered. He said loudly, "The leader wishes to see the woman who has made his wonderful clothes." So Vasilisa went to the first cave. Vasilisa and the leader were captivated by each other and eventually they married. When Vasilisa's father returned, they invited both him and the old woman to come and live at the first cave. Also in the cave was the little doll, for Vasilisa carried it around in her pocket until the day she died.'

'Do you think my dolly would do that for me Mother,' a little girl said.

'I expect so,' a woman replied. 'But let's hope your doll never has to.'

'That was a good story,' Druwez said to Pripyiah.

The holy man nodded. 'But I am sure you have many stories of your own. Maybe you will share one now with us.'

Druwez grinned. 'I will tell you the story of Ayla.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wake to another day, the seventh of the same kind, walk down the corridor pass the small garden we are allowed to visit and into the cafeteria. I yawn as I see Danug who is busy stuffing eggs into his mouth.

'Morning,' I say and slump in the chair next to him.

He nods and carries on eating.

'Glad to see that this week's confinement hasn't spoiled your appetite,' I say ruefully, nodding my thanks to a woman as she places a cup of coffee in front of me. I ask her for some toast.

Danug puts down his fork and looks at me. 'We have to eat,' he says. 'I keep thinking we have to eat as we have to be strong because I'm hoping that soon, we will be able to go back to our time.'

'Do you think they will let us?'

'I think James will try his hardest to make it happen.'

'And the Colenel?'

Danug sighs. 'I think he would have preferred to not have us as a problems but now that we are, I think he would like to send us somewhere so we can be studied.'

I sit up and stare at him. 'Really? Is that what is going to happen to us?'

Danug shakes his head. 'I don't know, I hope not.' He takes my hand and squeezes it. 'We have to trust James,' he says.

I nod and take a sip of coffee.

The doors of the cafeteria suddenly open with a bang.

'We've found him,' James shouts as he runs in. 'We've found the hazard suit man.' He looks at me. 'We've found your bear man.'

I put down my cup and stare at James. 'Does that mean we can go home?'

James frowns. He shakes his head. 'He's in the reactor number four in the Chernobyl plant but that reactor exploded and is behind a concrete sarcophagus. No one could be alive in there, but it seems that he is. He's been seen moving around by some of the cameras that are still operational. Goodness knows how he's not been noticed before.'

'So all we have to do is go there, find him, touch him and we go home?' I ask, grinning.

'You can't go there. That area is too radioactive…' he sighs. 'The spirits, they are many there, exposure to them would make you die.'

'But…'

'And he hasn't been to see our people since you arrived either. I stationed someone to guard them, and report any sightings plus I've spoken to the patients. They haven't seen him.'

'Oh, but how are we going to get back then?'

James shrugs.

'We have to go to this reactor,' I insisted. 'It is the only way.'

'You would die.'

'Better to die than stay here.'

James frowns. 'Has it been so horrible here that you would rather die?'

'It has been boring, though I've enjoyed meeting you but I have to get back to my sister, and Danug wants to get back to his cousin. We have families.'

'Well, then we need to hope that the hazard suit man starts visiting the patients again then,' James says. 'And he does seem to disappear every day, but not to here.'

'I bet he's going to your cave,' Danug says.

I nod. 'I just hope that someone is looking after my sister. Though, it is more likely, she is being made to look after everyone else.' I look at James. 'There must be some way of getting back, can't you contact him somehow. You say you've seen him though he is far off so you obviously have some sort of magic. Can't you tell him to come back here?'

James smiles. 'Maybe,' he says, rushing to the door. 'Yes, it might be possible.'

'Can we come?' Danug asks.

'No,' James shakes his head. 'You have seen too much already. You will have to stay here. I will be back when I have news.'

OOOOOOOOOOOO

'I can't believe that this is Pripyiah's plan,' Druwez groaned as they walked to the haunted cave. 'This is a stupid idea; it's never going to work.'

'If he thinks it will work, then it will,' Bretie said. 'Pripyiah knows about these things.'

'But…'

'Come on,' she said, grabbing his arm when he tried to stop walking. 'We are nearly there.'

Sure enough, the cave was within sight and they would get to the path that led up to it within moments.

'We should have thought of another plan.'

'We can trust Pripyiah's plan,' Bretie said, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. 'He would never have let us come here if he thought it was stupid. I've known him all my life, and I can tell you, I would trust him with my life.'

'But you are trusting him with your life,' Druwez snorted. 'You are trusting in a plan that could end up with us being in the spirit world.'

'If that is what the Mother wants, who am I to object?' She shook her head and carried on walking. At the bottom of the path, she stopped and looked around at him. 'Are you coming?' she asked. 'Or do I have to do this myself?'

'Fine,' he said and joined her on the path, walking behind her until they got to the mouth of the cave.

She stood and looked into the dark and trembled. 'I…' She looked at the rock floor.

'I know,' Druwez took her hand in his. 'We'll go in together.'

OOOOOOOOOO

Shala screams and points to the side of the cave. The bear man is walking there, he takes the bubble off his head and sits down. Seems to mumble words, though no sound is heard from him. He stares around the cave, putting his hands out to the people. Mouthing the words, 'help me,' to them. Shala screams again.

And I wake up. Half expecting to see the bear man, I look around the dawn lit room and sigh. 'Please don't be scared Shala,' I say to myself but also to her. 'I will come back.'

I think about the bear man, and then I remember that he'd seemed to be asking for help. He wanted help. I climb out of bed, throw a tunic and trousers they've given me and rush to the cafeteria.

'He's trying to get us to help him,' I shout as I run into the room. 'The bear man, all these years he's been asking for help. Reaching out his hands, mouthing help me words.' I see that James is sitting with Danug. 'He's terrified, you know. I could always see it in his eyes. We have to help him, as well as help ourselves.'

James nods. 'I agree but it's going to be hard. I've tried to contact him, but he seems to be spending less time in the reactor, disappearing, probably to your cave, for hours and hours. I will try again though.'

'But don't you see?' I sit down. 'He asked us for help, my people. He asked me. I have to be the one that helps him. Please, I need to do this, is there no way I could be allowed to communicate with him? I'm not afraid of the magic or spirits involved.'

'No, I can see you're not,' James grins. 'I will see what I can do.'


	4. Chapter 4

We are led into a small room with just a few chairs. James asks us to sit, while he walks over to a big object set against a wall. He presses something.

'This isn't spirits, or magic,' he says. 'It is a television, something that is common in my time. We will be able to see the hazard suit man on it.'

'But how?' I gasp when something appears on the screen, another room, dark, dusty, abandoned.

'You don't have to know how,' he continues. 'You just have to accept it. Now, I'm going to use this,' he waves a stick in the air. 'It is called a microphone, and I'm going to use it to talk to the hazard suit man, to call him so he will talk to us.'

'Okay,' I say, not liking the idea of seeing someone who wasn't really there. 'I guess.'

'I don't like this,' Danug whispers in my ear.

I shake my head. 'Neither do I,' I respond. 'But if it gets us back to where we should be, then we have to try.'

'But surely it must be against the Mother.'

I shrug my shoulders. 'I don't know, but she must still be around now, not just in our time, and if she has allowed the people to have these things, then maybe…'

'It is not against the Mother,' he finishes my sentence.

I nod. 'Though,' I add darkly. 'I haven't heard anyone mention her since we've been here, maybe she doesn't exist anymore.'

Danug gasps and looks around the room nervously. 'So we could be alone? Without her help?'

'I don't know.'

Someone appears on the object that James called a television. It is the bear man. He stands right in front of us, his arms stretched out toward us, his eyes visibility through his bubble, as are his lips which mouth words.

'Help me.'

'Hello,' James says. 'Can you hear me?'

There is the sound of crackling in the room, it sounds to me a bit like wood splitting in a fire.

'Help me.'

'We are trying to help you,' James said.

'Help me, let me die.'

'Who are you?'

'Help me, let me die,' the bear man repeats again. 'Let me die, I long for death. Please.'

'I know your life must have been unimaginable horror for the last twenty odd years,' James starts to say. 'But what if you can live? What if we can save you?'

'You cannot save me. Let me die.'

James sighs. 'We can't reach you,' he says. 'You are in the reactor building, behind a concrete sarcophagus. We can't get to you.'

The bear man nods on the screen. 'I am trapped,' he says.

'But that's just it, you aren't trapped, because you aren't always in the reactor. You go other places too don't you?'

'The people.'

'Yes, the people. You've been going back to cave men,' he glances at me. 'To cave people's time but you have also been visiting this facility but not for the last week. Why?'

The bear man shakes his head. 'Something has happened, someone touched me, and I felt them come into this time. Since then, I've only been to the cave, and spent hours every day there. The people are so afraid of me.'

'I'll bet,' James says under his breath.

'I want to see Irina…'

'Irina? You know Irina?'

'She was a colleague at Chernobyl, I used to watch her sometimes, trying to build up the courage to ask her out. I never did.'

'And that is why you have been coming to this facility? To see Irina?'

'Yes.'

'So why don't you visit her anymore?'

'I do not know, I want to.'

'Could you try?'

'I have tried but something is stopping me getting through. It must be the cave people, the ones that came through. Is that them there?'

He stares at us, at me.

'This is Shana and Danug,' James introduces us. 'Who am I talking to?'

'My name was Viktor Alexandrov.'

'Hello Viktor,' James frowns. 'Are you any relative to Colonel…'

'I have a brother,' Viktor says. 'But he isn't a Colonel or any rank. His son is always saying he's going to join the army when he's older. But he is just a boy.'

'I shouldn't have asked…' James' cheek twitches. 'Viktor, can you tell me what year it is?'

Viktor laughs, but the sound of it isn't happy but sad. 'By now, it must be nearly 1987,' he says. 'Maybe I haven't been trapped here so long, but it seems like months and months have passed. Why do you ask? Do you think being trapped here has sent me mad?'

'No, no, I was just testing your mental capabilities,' James says hurriedly.

'I thought James said it has been years since the accident,' I whisper to Danug. 'More than twenty.'

Danug shrugs. 'Can you imagine having to go through what he's gone through for over twenty years? We should be glad that to him, it just seems like months.'

I nod.

'Now tell me,' James continues. 'Do you know what it is about these two that is stopping you from coming here?'

Viktor shrugs. 'I suppose it is simply they are displaced, they shouldn't be in our time. I don't know how to get around whatever it is.'

'We could pray,' I say.

Danug nods his head. 'Yes, we should pray. The Mother will help us.'

'The Mother?' James turns to look at us. 'Who is the Mother? Don't you mean the Father?'

I shake my head. 'I do not know the word Father.'

'I do,' Danug says. 'When I was staying with the Zelendonii, the Mother spoke to my friend Ayla, she said that the man has a part in forming the new life of a child. And he should be called a father. But I do not know why we would pray to one.' He frowns.

'I have prayed many times to the Father since this happened,' Viktor says. 'But he has never rescued me.'

'The Mother will though,' I say.

'This Mother,' James asks. 'Do you mean Mother Earth? Gaia?'

'There is a people who live near mine who call the Mother Gaia,' Danug says. 'My people call her Mut.'

'Ah, yes. I have heard of Mut. But we worship the Father nowadays. And the son. Though I don't think I should tell you too much about them. If He wanted you to know, you would know. But as to prayer, I think it is our only option so we should pray to whoever our God is, and hope they give us a solution.'

I nod. 'Mother,' I say. 'Wherever you are, help us now.'

'Father,' James puts his hands together, fingers outstretched. 'Help us.'

'Father, please,' Viktor pleads. 'I just want this to end. Save me please,' he voice cracks with emotion.

'Mother, we just want to go home,' Danug adds.

The television flickers, it almost looks like something is pushing Viktor out of the way. The image of a woman appears, surrounded by rocks.

'Ayla,' Danug gasps.

'Mother,' I say. 'But you are dead.'

The woman's eyes are closed but slowly they open. 'Help me,' she says. 'Help me.'

'She is not your mother, or your friend,' says a deep voice, sounding neither male or female. 'She is your grandmother, and your friend's mother. She has been trapped for many years, like Viktor. Two parts of the same problem. My people, why do you mess around with things you do not understand? The radiation leak caused all this, it leached backward in time, and caused an earthquake that stole a child of her mother. And trapped her in a living death. And trapped Viktor in his own death. And changed things, meaning that a group of my people, my ancient people were removed from their own time, and confined. And more of my people, were ensnared in their bodies, never to grow old but never to be allowed to live life. But all this stops now.'

I gasp. 'Is that the voice of the Mother?'

'I am what you call me, the Mother of all, but I am also the Father, the one who sent the Son.'

'So you are both?' James asks.

'I am neither male or female, man or woman, Mother or Father, I am God, the Creator of All. I am everything. I am in control and correct the mistakes of my people. I release the woman from her stony cave. She has entered back into life again, I have sent her to my people's cave. Your cave Shana. I will release Viktor so he can come to you and then, you will help him to find his desire. You will do my work and correct everything else.'

The woman on the screen disappears and then so did the image of the cave, to be replaced with another cave. The woman cuddling a scared child. My sister. She turns to look at us.

And then I realise that Viktor too has gone from the television. I feel a draft behind me and turn to see him standing there. And I reach out to touch him.

And there is a flash of light.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They were in the haunted cave, holding hands and walking to the small cave at the back, the one with the paintings. Druwez carried a lit torch in his hand, that threw shadows against the rough walls, making the place seem alive.

He shivered. 'This is never going to work,' he muttered but carried on walking. He held up the torch as they entered the small cave, its light illuminating the painting.

Danug wasn't there. And neither was the girl who looked like Ayla. And in the painting, the other people were huddled together, peeking out from behind rocks, only their terrified eyes visible and the tops of their heads.

And then the picture changed.

OOOOOOOOOOO

I close my eyes as the world swirls around me. A great roaring rushing over my head, as if a hurricane in blowing. And then there is silence. I open one eye and peek out. The bear man is standing in front of me so I can only see him. I start to turn, hoping I am back in my cave.

'What on Earth happened?' a voice says. It's angry and oh too familiar.

'Colonel,' I gasp, looking at the man.

'Where am I?' he glares at me. 'What is this place? Hell?'

But I don't answer him, because at that moment I hear squealing and see someone running to me.

'Shana? Is it really you?' says the girl, throwing her arms around me.

'Shala?' I stare at her face, and bend down and kiss her cheek. 'Oh Shala, I am so glad to see you.'

'Where have you been Shana? You've been gone for ages.'

'I know Shala, but I'm back now.' I hug her.

A woman steps forward and she looks so like my mother did, that it makes me want to cry.

'This is Grandma Shayla,' Shala says. 'She appeared earlier but she's been telling me that she used to live in this cave. She was our mother's mother.'

'The one who left?'

'Shana,' she takes hold of my hands. 'You are the girl I saw in the vision aren't you? When the Mother released me and brought me back here?'

'That was you?' I laugh. 'That was you. How are you feeling?'

'Good,' she says. 'Better than I have for years. But I must tell you, I didn't leave. I always meant to come back but we travelled a long way, and it took a long time. And then the Earthquake happened.'

'We?'

'Myself and my daughter Shaylana. Your aunt. I don't know what happened to her.'

'I do,' said a voice. 'She was adopted by a group of people living nearby but eventually found her way to my people. But she left to journey along the Mother River, and beyond, and now lives with a group called the Zelendonii with her mate and daughter. She's known as Ayla now. My cousin and I were just going back to our people after visiting her.'

'Ayla,' the woman said. 'And she is happy?'

Danug hesitated and then nodded. 'Yes, she is happy.'

'Then I am glad.' She smiled. 'Though I was saddened to hear my first daughter walks the land of the spirits now and that my granddaughters are trapped in this place.'

'Well hopefully not for too long,' yet another person spoke. 'Hi, I'm James,' the man who had been supporting us for the last week held his hand out to my grandmother.

'But what is this place?' the colonel asks. 'Where am I?'

I sigh. 'You are in my cave,' I tell him. 'In my time.'

'What? How is that possible? I want to go home.'

James grimaced. 'Well you can't go home, not yet anyway. You are stuck here as much as we are, and as much as these people surrounding us are.'

'Savages.' He spat on the floor.

I hear the pounding of heavy feet and look to see the bear man plodding toward a log seat. He sits down and takes the bubble off his head to reveal curly blonde hair and a young face. He groans and rubs his temples.

'Are you feeling ill?' I ask as I run over to him.

'I'm always feeling ill,' he admits. 'I've felt really bad ever since the accident. My head hurts, my bones ache, my teeth feel like someone has stuck red hot pokers in them. And I'm tired, so tired.' He closes his eyes.

'Maybe I can get you something that will ease the pain,' I say. 'I am a healer.'

He shakes his head. 'There is no cure for what is making me ill. Well, only the ultimate cure.'

'What's that? Maybe I have it.'

He grins and then groans, squeezing his eyes tight. 'You can't do anything for me, I'm dying. But I still live. I should have died ages ago, I know I should but I don't seem to be able to. I wish I could.'

'Don't say that.'

'Why not? I deserve to die anyway. The accident was my fault.'

'What?' James frowns. 'What do you mean?'

'I thought the reactors were too slow in coming online, so I'd suggested we do some experiments to increase their proficiency. There were many of us worried about the water cooling systems if there was a power strike so the idea was to try to make Chernobyl work better. An initial test was carried out in nineteen eighty two, and then again in nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty five. But all of the tests didn't work too well and it was decided that we would try again in April nineteen eighty six on a day during the maintenance of the shutdown of Reactor Four. But yet again, the test didn't work, and we didn't manage to reduce the start-up time of the reactor. I suggested that we boost the reactor output once the test was underway, and that is when things went wrong. I left the control room then, and after putting a hazard suit on, ran down to the reactor. I tried to do emergency shutdown there. After that, things got hazy, there was a flash of light, I was sure it was an explosion, I felt a wave of something blasting me. And then I found myself in another place. In this cave. Since then I've spent my time in the reactor and here, and visiting Irina. But I know why she's in there, I know why they are all in there, I can tell from the burns and the missing limbs. I caused Chernobyl to explode, I caused a release of radiation and am to blame for these people being trapped here.'

'You know we are trapped?' I gasp. 'Do you know how we can make everything normal again?'

He shrugs. 'I guess everything will go back once I am dead, and I think the Father has already started our release from our prisons.'

'But Viktor, you can't die,' James says.

'Viktor?' the Colonel steps forward. He looks at Viktor's face. 'It is you, isn't it?'

Viktor frowns. 'Do I know you?'

The Colonel nods. He reaches out and tries to grab Viktor's coated hand. 'Is is me, little Andrei Alexandrov. I'm your nephew,' he says. 'And you are my Uncle Viktor. Father always wondered what had happedn to you.'

'My brother?'

The Colonel nods. 'Yes, your brother.' He tries to touch Viktor again.

'Don't touch me,' he warns. 'You could end up in the reactor.'

The Colonel immediately steps away. 'You really have been trapped in the reactor for all thse years?'

'Years? Surely its been months.' He stares at the Colonel and then groans. 'But if it was, then you would still be a boy, not a man. How long has it been since the explosion?'

'Twenty five years.'

'Twenty five years? I've been trapped for that long? I've been longing for death for twenty five years?'

The Colonel gulps but doesn't reply. There are no words he can say.

'I can't go on like this,' Viktor says. 'I need to be free. Please,' he looks at me now. 'Please, help me. I need to be free, I need to die. I'm dead already, I can feel the radiation in my body, I should be dead already but this time warp, for that is what it must be, somehow keeps me alive. But I need to die and be free. Please, help me.'

'But how can we help you?' I ask. 'How can we help him?' I ask them all.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Druwez gave the torch to Bretie and then uncoiled the rope around his waist. He walked over to the far wall of the small cave and tied it around a large stone situated there.

'That must be where the Pripyiah of this cave used to sit when he was meditating,' Bretie commented.

Druwez nodded his head and checked to see if the rope was tight enough.

'Come and hold this then,' he said to Bretie.

Bretie gripped the end of the rope near the stone. 'I hope this works,' she said.

'So do I,' Druwez said, though he was shaking his head. 'I don't see how it will work but the ways of the Mother are mysterious and many.' He took hold of the loose end of the rope, and wrapped it around his hand. 'Are you ready?'

Bretie gulped but then nodded her head.

Druwez turned to look back at the picture that now showed his cousin again, it also showed someone who looked like Ayla, some people dressed very strangely and a bear with the head of a man. The people of the cave were still mostly peeking out from behind rocks, obviously terrified.

'Wish me luck,' he said as he started to reach toward the painting.

'Good luck Druwez,' Bretie said.

Druwez touched the painting, and a flash of light filled the cave.

Bretie closed her eyes, but when the light decreased, she opened them again to see she was now alone. And there was another figure in the painting.

'Go with the Mother Druwez,' she whispered. 'Mother, please bring him back. Bring them all back.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I hear a noise and turn to see a young man walking toward us, someone I do not know.

'Druwez,' Danug shouts and runs up to him. 'Is it really you?'

The man nods and looks around. 'Is this the spirit world?' he asks, a tremor in his voice.

'I don't think so,' Danug replies. 'I don't really understand what is happening here, but I don't think this place is the land of the dead. I think it is just somewhere that has been removed from the land of the living.'

The young man blinks. 'How is that possible?'

Danug shrugs. 'But it is great to see you, I've missed you. Here, let me introduce you to everyone.'

He is dragged toward me, and I notice a rope trailing from his hand, and going back into the cave Pripyiah used to meditate in, before he lost his faith.

'This is Shana,' he says, smiling at me.

'She looks like Ayla.'

Danug nods. 'That is because she is his niece.'

The young man stares at Danug. 'What? She's…'

Danug nods.

'But how?'

'It's a long story, one that I will tell you when life is less stressed but for now, you just have to trust that she is Ayla's niece as is the little girl, Shala. And the lady over there, though she doesn't look old enough, is Ayla's long lost mother Shayla.'

The young man's eyes got bigger.

'Shana, this is Druwez of the Mamutoi. My cousin.'

'Welcome Druwez,' I say, stretching my hands out toward him in greeting. 'It is good to finally meet you, though I would have preferred to have met you outside. With everything back to normal.'

'Back to normal?'

'We're trapped here Druwez,' Danug tells him. 'We can't leave the cave.'

'But,' Druwez grins. 'I think I might know a way out.' He lifts his hand up, the rope dangling from it. 'I don't know if it will work, but this rope, it disappears into the wall in the small cave, the other end of it is being looked after by a friend of mine, Bretie. She's waiting for us.'

I look at him. 'We can get out?'

Danug shrugs. 'I suppose it is worth a go though.'

'But anything could happen,' the Colonel points out. 'Maybe we should stay here, or touch my uncle again to get back to the future.'

'I told you,' Viktor says. 'If you touch me, then you could end up in the reactor.' He looks at me. 'Could I try? I think if I was free, then the time warp would end.'

I nod.

'He shouldn't try,' the Colonel says. 'He could make the rope disappear, and Druwez with it. Anyway, even if he does manage to get outside, his radiation levels are sure to make the primitives ill.'

'Bretie and I were put on a special diet by her Pripyiah, that he said would protect us from the spirits that have caused this,' Druwez says. 'I think we are safe.'

'And we have been giving Shana and Danug radiation pills.'

'I think Viktor should try,' I say.

'No.' The Colonel glares at me. 'No, he has to go back, back to the reactor. Where he belongs.'

Viktor frowns. 'You want me to go back to the reactor? You want me to be endlessly alive when I am really dead?'

'No, I um…' He looks around at us. 'Yes. I want you to go back to the reactor. It is what you deserve.'

'For being the one who started the experiment,' Viktor lowers his head. 'I understand…'

'No, you don't understand. You should be punished but not because of the explosion and the radiation leakage. You should be punished because of what your disappearance did to my father. He couldn't cope with it, and it sent him mad. He killed himself.' The Colonel starts to shout. 'He killed himself and it is your fault.'

'What? No!' Viktor put his head in his hands.

'You know, I was stationed at the radiation exclusion zone camp not long after his death. One night I was alone and was idly looking at the images stored from the cameras within reactor four, and I saw something. Zooming in, I realised it was a man dressed in a hazard suit. I got myself assigned to security for a while, and was able to view the images as they were filmed. And I saw you. And I realised who you were, one image was a close up of your face, I recognised you.'

'Why did you not say anything?'

'Why should I have done? I knew it was him, and that I hated him and wanted him to suffer, so I never told anyone. It's been thirteen years now, and you are all the first people I've told.'

'Thirteen years,' Viktor groans. 'You could have tried to release me thirteen years ago but you decided I needed punishing because your father killed himself?'

The Colonel nods. 'And I intend to make sure you go back and stay forever in that reactor.' He steps toward him.

'No,' Viktor screams. 'I won't go back there.' He runs, heavy though he is in the hazard suit and grabs the rope in Druwez' hand just as the Colonel reaches it. A flash of light seems to travel up it, and passing Viktor by, starts to pulse around the Colonel.

Viktor pulls him away and then stares at his hands. 'I'm still here, you are still here, he says to his nephew. 'How is that possible?'

'I…' the Colonel shakes his head like he's trying to clear it. 'I was burning,' he finally says. 'I was burning alive, but you pulled me to safety.' He looks at Viktor. 'You saved me, you saved me from burning.'

'And I would save you again,' Viktor says. 'You are my nephew and I love you.'

'But…'

Viktor turns to James. 'Did you see that? I touched him but we are still here.' He smiles. 'I think the Father is finally answering my prayer.'

James nods. 'I think you are right.'

'Let's get him to Pripyiah's cave,' I say. 'Then if we all touch the rope, we can get him free and hopefully stop this curse.'

'But it will burn us,' Danug says.

'I wasn't burned,' Druwez says. 'I think it is safe, but because this plan is from the Mother, those that touch the rope with anger in their hearts are consumed.'

'Are you sure?'

'Not really, but I just have a feeling that what I said is true.'

'Okay.' James nods. Who's going to go with him?'

'I think Druwez should,' I say. 'And because you and the Colonel are not from this time period, you should go too, because otherwise, the time warp might not be broken. And Danug and I too, we have been to the future. And Shayla because she was in the time warp too.'

'Can I come?' Shala asks.

I shake my head.

'She will be okay,' my grandmother says. 'I will look after her.'

I sigh. 'Okay, she can come too. If we manage to get outside, then hopefully with us all gone, the cave with go back to the outside too. And will no longer be a trap.'

'Let's hope so,' Danug says, as he helps Viktor stand. 'Is everyone ready?'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Danug and James helps Viktor to stand and walks with him into the small cave which is filled with light from the wall where the rope suddenly appears. In fact, it doesn't even look like a wall, it looks more like the membrane of an egg, I can see through it.

'Is that your friend?' Danug asks, nodding to where a girl is sat on the other side.

'Yes,' Druwez says. 'That is Bretie. She looks scared so I think we should hurry.'

I nod and take my Shala's hand in mine. 'Everyone hold hands,' I advise. 'Danug should hold his cousin's hand, and the Colonel's who should hold James'.

'Whose hand do I hold?' my grandmother asks.

'You should hold Shala's hand and James.'

She nods and shyly takes James' hand in hers. 'Is everyone is holding two people's hand?' I ask.

'Everyone but you and Druwez,' Shala giggles. 'You will have to hold hands.'

'Yes,' I agree, and that will close the circle and keep us safe. Is everyone ready?'

'I am holding no one's hand,' Viktor says.

'We are going to form a circle around you, holding hands but touching you with our bodies, we will huddle together.'

Viktor walks into the centre of the unclosed circle, and everyone closes in around him.

I reach out and take Druwez' hand in mine.

A flash of light fills my eyes, but it is different this time, goes on for what seems like forever but it doesn't blind my eyes, I am able to keep them open. And I see around us, around the circle, people, spirits walking around, reaching out to us. They are golden, and have white wings like a bird and oh so tall. And their faces are so peaceful, I can't be afraid of them, in fact, the sight of them makes my heart swell with joy.

And in amidst them comes walking a new spirit but he looks more like a man. He has long brown hair and soft brown eyes. There are scratches on his forehead and small holes in his arms and legs. But his face is so good, so pure, so beautiful, it astounds me.

'It is the Lord,' Viktor says from within our circle. 'Lord, please take me.'

'Soon,' the man promises. 'Soon, you will have your reward.'

'But…' the Colonel twists his head to look at the man. 'He's caused so much suffering. Should he not…'

The man looks at the Colonel who starts to sob.

'Son,' the man says. 'You have to forgive and you have to forget.' He touches the Colonel on the head. 'It is time for you to go home.'

The Colenel immediately starts to flicker, like he is a spirit himself, and then he is gone and the circle is open. The man walks to Viktor and takes his hand and walks him out of the circle. Danug and James just manage to grab hold of him and we are all pulled along.

'Where did you send my nephew?' Viktor asks.

'I sent him home,' the man says. 'He needed to return and see to the people that have been in isolation.'

'But I will do that,' James says. 'When I get back.'

The man turns to look at him. 'My will for you is different,' he says, glancing at my grandmother. 'The lands of the Pripyia will be your new home.'

'But…'

The man puts a finger to his lips. 'Hush,' he says. 'Just trust me.'

We stop walking and stand in front of a wall, the same one from the cave but it is even more clear now, I can see the girl so clearly.

'Go through the wall,' the man says to me, touching me as I walk through.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

I stumbled on a loose stone on the floor on the other side, making the girl Bretie jump up.

'Who are you?' she asked. 'Where's Druwez?'

'He's coming,' I answered, stepping away from the wall as more came through.

Shala, her face a picture of terror, our grandmother comforting her. James looking all around him, an interested look on his face, Danug striding in, followed by Druwez who looked toward the wall.

'Come on,' he said. 'Where are you Viktor?'

And then Viktor stepped through, causing Bretie to scream. She ran from the cave and then screamed again.

'People,' she said. 'There are people in the cave.'

I hurried out and saw the people that I'd spent my whole life with, they were milling around, looking confused. I walked to the mouth of the cave, and went outside, walking to the path. Taking a deep breath, I put my foot onto the slope and smiled. 'Look,' I shouted, running up and down the path. 'I can get outside, we're free. Come on everyone.'

I watched as my people stepped onto the path, the looks of terror on their faces quickly replaced with joy. They ran down the path and into the valley.

'We are free,' they screamed and shrieked, falling down on their knees on the snow.

I ran back up the path, and into the cave, looking around, I saw there was no one left, but I hadn't seen those who had come through the wall with me. I hurried into the small cave at the back to see them kneeling next to Viktor.

He looked at me as I approached. 'Gentle girl,' he said. 'You are free as I am free now.' He smiled and closed his eyes. Slowly his breathing stilled.

'He's gone,' my grandmother said. She hugged Shala, and then standing up, drew me too into the hug.

'Who was he?' Bretie whispered. 'He looks a bit like a bear but his head is that of a man.'

'That's because he was a man,' Danug said.

'A man who suffered more than anyone should suffer,' James added. 'But he is free now, and gone to the Lord.'

'The Lord?'

'The man we saw, He is the Lord, He is the one who ended the time warp.'

'But wasn't it the Mother?' Druwez asked.

'The Lord is many things, a mother and a father, a spirit and a son. He has taken this poor man's spirit to heaven now, where there are no more tears or sorrows.'

'What will we do with him?' I asked.

'We will bury him,' James said. 'Give him a funeral worthy of a servant of the Lord.'

'And what about you?'

James shrugged. 'It seems I am supposed to stay here.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

We stood around a mound of soil, the Pripyia and our visitors and new friends. James had attached two piece of tree branches together with the strands of the rope we had used to escape and placed them by where Viktor's head was, far below.

'For as much as it has pleased The Lord in His great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.'

'What does that mean?' I asked Danug.

'No idea,' he whispered back.

I watched as James picked up some soil and threw it on the grave.

'Goodbye Viktor,' he said. 'You have your reward now.'

OOOOOOOOOOO

I didn't return to the cave I had grown up in, no one did, no one wanted to go near it, fearful that it would once again trap them. Our people split up between the caves but for me there was another plan.

It was spring when he asked.

'Shana, I need to return to the Mamutoi,' Danug said. 'But I want you to come back with us, as my mate.'

Druwez had already asked Bretie the same question but I had more to think about.

'What about Shala, and my grandmother?'

'They could come too. My people would welcome them.'

'And James? You know how close he has grown to Shayla.'

Danug laughed. 'I've noticed. I would really like for him to come too. I think he would really enjoy to see how my people live.'

I nodded. 'maybe you should ask him.'

'To mate me? No, I would rather join with you.'

'No silly,' I slapped him. 'You should ask him to come.'

'Okay, I will but only when I know your answer?'

'I will mate you, if you can convince my grandmother and James to come.'

'And if I can't?'

I sighed. 'I can't leave them behind.'

He looked at his feet. 'So you don't want to mate me?'

'I…'

'If I stayed here, would you mate me then?'

'Yes,' I said, smiling at him. 'Yes, I would. In a heartbeat.'

He grinned at me. 'That is all I need to know,' he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up and swung me around. Then he placed me back on my feet and leant down and kissed me on the lips. 'That is all I need to know,' he whispered. 'I love you Shana.'

My heart skipped a beat, jerking around in my chest and for a moment I was speechless but I knew what I had to say. 'Danug,' I said, holding his face in my hands. 'I would really like to be your mate because I love you too. Now go and convince the others to come with us.'

He put his arm around my waist. 'We will convince them together.'

The End.


End file.
